Bangor stay on top with win at CIYMS

Bangor’s busy schedule continued with an away trip to struggling CIYMS. With last season’s meeting at this juncture ending in unexpected disappointment despite finishing comfortably ahead, Bangor were looking to take control of this game and be sure of a convincing victory. Although not at their usual full strength with Morgan, Widdowson, Gamble, Burton and Stewart unavailable, Bangor still fielded a strong team that included the return of Desi Fusco after a nasty hand injury sustained during the Junior Cup Final in December.

With little or no wind, clear skies above and a firm playing surface, the conditions were practically perfect. The home side kicked off and were immediately under pressure. Whereas in the previous two games Bangor took time to get into their stride and only produced their ‘blitz’ later in the game, CIYMS were to experience this onslaught from the start. It took just 3 minutes before some quick and secure handling got the ball to Davy Charles on the right wing who had a straightforward run in to score in the corner. Neil Cuthbertson was on kicking duty today, but this difficult opening effort was unsuccessful.

From the restart, Bangor ran right back at CIYMS, coming very close to scoring again through Darren Kelly, but his foot just nudged the touchline, and the chance was gone. However, Bangor stole the subsequent lineout and moved the ball across to the centre where Desi Fusco, coming into the line at great speed, cut through the CIYMS back line and crashed over for the try. Cuthbertson added the conversion and Bangor were now 0-12 ahead with just 6 minutes gone.

Within the next 4 minutes, Ross McCloskey added a third Bangor try with a strong diagonal run to score in the right hand corner. Another good kick by Cuthbertson stretched Bangor’s lead to 0-19.

At this stage, Bangor’s dominance and incisive running looked like the end result could end up looking like a cricket score, but to the home side’s credit, the following 20 minutes or so saw a much better CIYMS performance. Long passes across their back line got the ball to the quick wingers, but in attempting to intercept one of these, Oran McIlmurry was judged to have deliberately knocked the ball on, and received a yellow card as a result. Bangor sensibly managed this 10 minute loss, and denied CIYMS any opportunity to capitalise on their advantage. On McIlmurry’s return, Bangor upped the pressure once again and were rewarded with a great break by Adam McCusker from outside the CIYMS twenty two, before out-running the defence to score Bangor’s bonus point try to the left of the posts. Cuthbertson’s kick brought the score to 0-26.

As the first half drew to a close, CIYMS continued with their wide passing strategy. While only making ground across the pitch rather than advancing on the Bangor line, once again it tempted Bangor to make an intercept which, this time, saw Darren Kelly yellow carded for another deliberate knock on – a disappointing end to the first half.

Once again, this gave CIYMS a welcome boost and the opening 10 minutes of the second half saw them come close to scoring, but were once again denied by a combination of handling errors and solid defending. When back to full strength once more, Bangor clinically showed the difference between the two teams – wherever possible, take the direct route. This was the case when, after 15 minutes, a Bangor penalty was quickly taken by David Bradford who tapped to himself and simply ran through to score under the posts. He then followed up his try with a drop-kicked conversion.

In fact, as has been the case throughout the season, Bangor show real danger when counter-attacking. This was the case when, having won the ball in the centre of the pitch, the ball was passed to Cuthbertson on the left wing and, having side-stepped his immediate tackler, proceeded to sprint down the touchline to score in the corner. The difficult touchline conversion was missed but with just 13 minutes remaining, Bangor were 38 points ahead and well out of the reach of CIYMS.

As the game entered its final few minutes, a missed tackle by Bangor allowed CIYMS to break through and only some great covering defence prevented what looked like a certain score. The Bangor lineout on their own 5 metre line was won in the air by Bradford, but somehow as he came to ground the ball slipped from his hands. CIYMS were the quicker to react and pounced on the loose ball to score an unlikely consolation try, bringing the final score to 5-38.

While no doubt irritated not to have kept a clean sheet, Bangor will be pleased that this result keeps them one point ahead at the top of the league table, and increases their points difference even further. With all three senior teams recording wins – the 2nds winning away at Ballyclare and the 3rds at home against PSNI – it was good to see the players back in the Upritchard Park bar afterwards to share in each other’s success. Bangor’s difficult run-in to the end of the QL1 competition continues next weekend when they host Portadown at Upritchard Park.

Bangor team: O McIlmurry, P Whyte, P Dornan, D Kelly, M Ferguson, M Weir, J Clegg (c), D Bradford, J Guthrie, K Rosson, N Cuthbertson, D Fusco, R McCloskey, D Charles, A McCusker

Subs: M Aspley, J McMullan

Bangor scorers: D Charles (1T), D Fusco (1T), R McCloskey (1T), A McCusker (1T), D Bradford (1T, 1C), N Cuthbertson (1T, 3C)